A group lawsuit is being filed today by thirty entrepreneurs who claim they were scammed by the same woman, who posed as a PR specialist, journalist, and travel agent, promising “golden” packages for the Final Four in Abu Dhabi.

The plaintiffs claim they paid thousands of euros for game tickets and seats on a charter flight that either didn’t exist or were allegedly sold to multiple people at the same time.

They also express anger over the woman’s behavior, who, according to her Facebook posts, appears to have filed a defamation lawsuit against a woman who publicly accused her on social media.

Comments under her post included:
“Your audacity knows no bounds,”
“They took our cow along with the debt,”
“Since you’re not ashamed, I’m still waiting for my €1,600,”
“If you care about your reputation, return the money you embezzled.”

New Complaint

At the same time, a new complaint has been added to the case file, this time from a private employee at a shipping company, who told protothema.gr how she was unintentionally caught up in this woman’s network of contacts.

As she explains, it all began when a friend mentioned having two Final Four tickets through Panathinaikos BC and wanted to sell them. She found an interested buyer, and the tickets were sold.

“One day later, I got a call from this woman, who introduced herself as a travel agent. She had gotten my number from one of the people who had been scammed and who supposedly had already purchased a seat on the charter flight. When I told her I had no more tickets, she started crying and said something had gone wrong, that she had a serious problem, and that she had organized a group trip to Abu Dhabi including, as she claimed, serious businessmen and even a minister.”

Trying to help, the private employee connected her with an acquaintance who had listed a ticket on Viagogo. The PR woman bought it for €1,700. But it didn’t stop there.
“She called again and asked me to find more tickets. I ended up finding her three more, which she bought at a very high price—about €2,000 each. She was extremely anxious and kept asking where the minister would be seated. She was in a panic and looking for a total of 40 tickets.”

On Sunday afternoon, just one day before the charter’s departure, the woman called her again.
“She asked me what she should do because some people were threatening to cancel since they hadn’t received their tickets,” she said.

The next morning, one of the people who had sold her a ticket—and had even offered to help her find more—called, concerned:
“He told me something wasn’t right. She had sent him bank deposit slips from the Cooperative Bank of Chania, but the funds never appeared. We began to suspect she was trying to sell the same ticket to two or three different people. That was also evident from the fact that she tried to sell one of the tickets for less than what she had paid.”

The case now appears to be heading to court, as the number of people claiming to be victims of fraud continues to grow. Today’s filing of the group lawsuit by 30 entrepreneurs is expected to mark the beginning of a broader investigation by the authorities.